Here’s a riddle for you. Why do older drivers over the age of 70 pay more for car insurance on average than drivers in their 60s?
(A.) Drivers who are 70 years old have more fatal crashes.
(B.) Drivers who are 70 years old have more nonfatal accidents.
(C.) A 70-year-old driver is more likely to be uninsured.
My husband’s answer was none of the above. “They just want to make more money,” he says.
I agree with Secretary of State Alexi Giannulias after a new study found that older drivers are among the safest drivers in the state.
According to CarInsurance.com, which bills itself as an unbiased source of information that helps consumers determine how much they should pay for coverage, the average cost of auto insurance for a 60-year-old driver in Illinois is If you purchase indemnity insurance, the cost is $1,251. The 70-year-old driver pays her $1,400 for the same coverage.
In Illinois, a 70-year-old driver pays 12% more than a 60-year-old driver and a 75-year-old driver pays 25% more for full coverage insurance.
According to a 2022 data analysis by CarInsurance, “auto insurance premiums are rising for most older drivers in their mid-60s and continue to rise.”
According to Giannoulias, 2022 crash data compiled by the Illinois Department of Transportation shows drivers 75 and older had a lower crash rate of 24.39 crashes per 1,000 people than drivers in each age group from 16 to 69. That’s what it means.
Nationally, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that approximately 7,500 older adults died in traffic accidents in the United States in 2020.
The CDC found that “drivers age 70 and older have a higher crash fatality rate per 1,000 people than middle-aged drivers (35 to 54 years),” and the older group’s higher crash fatality rate is primarily due to “accident fatality rates.” This is due to ‘increased vulnerability to injury due to crash. “
However, the CDC report also found that “older adults are more likely to engage in safe driving behaviors than other age groups.”
So shouldn’t safer driving behavior mean something, like lower car insurance costs?
After all, age is just a number.
Recently, we witnessed Dorothy Hoffner, a 104-year-old woman from Ottawa, become the world’s oldest skydiver. And just recently, I had lunch with a healthy 92-year-old woman who looks half my age.
We are individuals, not groups.
More importantly, why should older people, who often have difficulty living on fixed incomes, have to deal with such discrimination?
We can’t do anything about aging.
But by wearing our seatbelts, not using our phones while behind the wheel, and keeping our eyes on the road, we must be aware of our limits and take the necessary steps to stay safe. You can definitely take the following steps.
If I do these things and maintain a clean driving record, why should I have to pay over 60 car insurance just because I’m 10 years older? ?
In the article “Discrimination in Underwriting Guidelines,” published on the Investopedia website, the authors write, “The question of what constitutes fair versus unfair discrimination is particularly relevant in 2020. It has received increasing attention since the murder of George Floyd.”
But these questions are not new. Going back far back, consumers have protested historically biased insurance rules that include redlining, restrictive covenants, zip codes, credit scores, and more in auto insurance pricing.
While actuaries have been successful in defending interest rates, consumer advocates argue that companies should use factors that humans can control to determine interest rates.
It is true that aging cannot be controlled.
Additionally, it’s unfair that older Americans have less money but have to pay more for necessities like car insurance and medical bills.
It could even get worse.
In 2020, the CDC noted that “there are approximately 48 million licensed drivers age 65 and older in the United States, an increase of 68% since 2000.”
That means more money goes into the insurance industry’s coffers and much less money in our pockets.
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